Executive functioning in overweight individuals with and without loss-of-control eating.

OBJECTIVE The current study sought to examine executive function (EF) in overweight individuals with and without loss-of-control (LOC) eating. METHOD Eighty overweight and obese individuals entering a behavioural weight loss trial with (n=18) and without (n=62) LOC eating were administered a clinical interview and neuropsychological battery designed to assess self-regulatory control, planning, delayed discounting and working memory. RESULTS After controlling for age, IQ and depression, individuals with LOC eating performed worse on tasks of planning and self-regulatory control and did not differ in performance on other tasks. DISCUSSION Results indicate that overweight individuals with LOC eating display relative deficits in EF compared with overweight individuals without LOC eating. Planning and self-regulatory control deficits in particular may contribute to dysregulated eating patterns, increasing susceptibility to LOC episodes. Future research should examine how EF deficits relate to treatment outcome.